Why moving in comes first
Think of switching to Cursor as moving house, not building a new one. Cursor is a fork of VS Code, so you get the same editor, the same command palette, the same settings.json and, mostly, the same extensions. Your aim in this level is a boring result: by the end, Cursor should feel like your own VS Code, the practice repository should be cloned, and its tests should pass. You haven't used any AI feature yet. You can only judge what the AI changes later if you know the project was working before it touched anything.
A note on independence. This course is independent. It is not made, sponsored or reviewed by Anysphere, Inc., the company that makes Cursor. Cursor ships changes often, sometimes several in a week, so the last section of this level shows you how to check any claim in this course against Cursor's own docs and changelog.
Step 1: Install Cursor
Go to cursor.com/download and choose the build for your OS. The download page offers builds for macOS (Apple silicon, Intel and Universal), Windows (x64 and ARM64, each as a User or System installer) and Linux (.deb, .rpm and AppImage). You'll need a Cursor account, which you can create free when you first sign in.
# macOS: open the .dmg and drag Cursor into Applications
# Windows: run the installer. The User installer needs no admin rights,
# and the System installer puts Cursor in place for every user on the machine
# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu example, using the file you downloaded):
sudo apt install ./cursor_*.deb # or: sudo dnf install ./cursor-*.rpm
# AppImage alternative:
chmod +x Cursor-*.AppImage && ./Cursor-*.AppImage
Gotcha: on a work laptop, pick the User installer on Windows unless IT tells you otherwise. You can install it without admin rights.
Step 2: Import your VS Code setup
You have two ways to do this.
One-click import (best when VS Code is on the same machine):
1. Open Cursor Settings: Ctrl+Shift+J (Cmd+Shift+J on macOS)
2. Go to General > Account
3. Under "VS Code Import", click Import
-> brings across extensions, themes, settings and keybindings
Profile export and import (best for moving between machines, or when you want to pick what comes across):
In VS Code:
Ctrl+Shift+P > "Preferences: Open Profiles (UI)"
... menu on your profile > Export Profile > save to a file or a GitHub Gist
In Cursor:
Ctrl+Shift+P > "Preferences: Open Profiles (UI)"
dropdown next to New Profile > Import Profile > choose the file or Gist URL
Import, then make the new profile the active one
Check what came across
Don't assume the import worked. Check it, and keep a short note:
# migration-notes.md
- Theme: One Dark Pro ............ OK
- Keybinding: Ctrl+D multi-cursor . OK
- Custom keybinding Ctrl+K Ctrl+T . OK? (test it)
- Extension: ESLint ............... OK
- Extension: <a Microsoft-only one> MISSING -> see below
Why might an extension be missing? Cursor installs third-party extensions from the Open VSX registry, through its own proxy that scans them for security problems. Microsoft's terms let only Microsoft's own products use its Marketplace. Open VSX carries most popular extensions but not all of them, and some versions there lag behind. For some Marketplace-only extensions, Cursor offers its own audited builds instead. If one you need is still missing, look for an alternative on Open VSX, or as a last resort download its .vsix file and run Extensions: Install from VSIX… from the command palette.
Trade-off: extensions installed by hand from a .vsix file skip the marketplace's security scan and don't update automatically. Write down any you install this way.
Cursor also tends to run a slightly older VS Code base than the latest VS Code release. If an extension says it needs a newer VS Code version, that is usually why.
Gotcha: keybinding clashes. Cursor uses some shortcuts for its own AI features. Ctrl+Shift+J for Cursor Settings is one you've already met. If a shortcut you relied on in VS Code now does something else, open Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts and search for the key combination to see what's bound to it.
Step 3: Clone the practice repo and get to green
Use the practice repository link on the course page. From Cursor's integrated terminal (Ctrl+`):
git clone <practice-repo-url> cursor-practice # paste the URL from the course page
cd cursor-practice
cursor . # optional: needs the 'cursor' shell command; File > Open Folder works too
Then follow the README's setup and test commands exactly. For a typical Node project:
npm install # install dependencies
npm test # run the test suite
# Expected shape of output:
# Tests: N passed, N total
If the tests fail before you've changed anything, stop and fix your environment first (wrong runtime version, a missing dependency, an unset env var). This is the most valuable habit in the whole course. A green baseline means that any red you see later was caused by an edit, whether yours or the AI's.
git status # should say: nothing to commit, working tree clean
Step 4: Learn where the truth lives
Cursor changes too fast for any course to stay current, so get used to checking.
- Your version: Help > About on Windows and Linux, or Cursor > About Cursor on macOS. It shows the Cursor version and the VS Code version it's built on.
- Changelog:
cursor.com/changelog. Entries are dated. Recent ones in October 2026 covered cloud agents and an app marketplace. Some features are introduced as beta. One example is the Environments API, which arrived in beta in mid-October 2026. - Docs:
cursor.com/docs. Check here for settings paths, plan limits and feature status.
Start a beta-watch.md in your notes:
| Date checked | Cursor version | Feature | Status (GA/beta) | Source |
|--------------|----------------|----------------|------------------|-------------------|
| 2026-10-18 | (from About) | Environments API | beta | cursor.com/changelog |
When a later lesson describes a feature, look it up in the docs and changelog and update this table. Beta features can change or disappear, so don't build team habits on them without checking first.
Key takeaways
- Cursor is a VS Code fork. Bring your setup over with Cursor Settings > General > Account > VS Code Import, or with a profile export and import.
- Check the import yourself: theme, keybindings and each important extension. Extensions come from Open VSX, so a few may be missing or behind.
- Before you touch any code, get the practice repo's tests passing with a clean
git status. - Your version is in Help > About. Check behaviour against
cursor.com/changelogandcursor.com/docs, and keep a running record of which features are marked beta. - This course is independent of Anysphere. When the course and Cursor's current docs disagree, the docs win.